EMDR is an eight-phase treatment method. A case report indicating the effectiveness of EMDR is also described. This is the midpoint of therapy where you will be working with your EMDR therapist to rationally assess the disruptive event that caused your trauma. While doing so, the therapist will work to help the brain change the way it associates trauma with its trigger.
Often, at this stage, patients are asked to focus on an image that invites a negative reaction while simultaneously performing bilateral eye movements. This type of stimulation is usually performed in a series of sets that must be determined by the therapist, and each set lasts approximately 25 to 30 seconds. After completing each set of eye movements, you will be asked to take a deep breath and provide feedback on what you experienced during treatment. The intensity of your traumatic response will dictate the speed and duration of the next set of eye movement stimulation.
Phase 8 occurs in each subsequent session. Guide the therapist through the treatment plan needed to help you heal completely. As with any form of good therapy, phase 8 is vital for determining treatment success over time. While you may feel relief almost immediately with EMDR, it's just as important to complete all eight phases of treatment as it is to complete an entire course of antibiotic treatment for a bacterial infection.
In phase three of your EMDR counseling, your therapist will work with you to locate and isolate the main memory that triggers your PTSD or emotional trauma. During this phase of EMDR therapy, a positive belief (“You're safe now) can be introduced to help counter negative emotions caused by trauma. Using the eight-phase step-by-step approach allows the experienced and trained EMDR therapist to maximize the treatment effects for you in a logical and standardized manner. EMDR is a great way to deal with traumatic experiences because this phase does not require an in-depth discussion of past events.
All eight phases contribute to the overall effect of EMDR therapy; however, not all phases can be used in an EMDR therapy session. The goal of EMDR treatment, in the following phases, is for SUD disturbance scores to decrease while positive belief VoC scores increase. Traditionally, EMDR counseling contains 8 phases that one will experience in your treatment by a trained therapist. In phase five of EMDR therapy, your therapist will work with you to “install a positive belief deep in your thinking process; your counselor will help you strengthen that positive belief and will work with you to drive out the negative so that it is completely replaced.
Before your treatment plan can be drawn, your EMDR therapist must first work with you in phase one to map out your medical history and identify the specific source of the trauma that has been affecting you. As a natural result of the EMDR phases, the client's thoughts, feelings and behavior are indicators of emotional health and resolution, all without talking in detail or doing homework used in other therapies. Counselor and client build trust in this phase, explain the theory and mechanics of EMDR, discuss stop and keep going signals. EMDR works faster than conventional therapy alone and consists of eight different phases that help you move from distress to comfort.
In the final phase of EMDR therapy, the therapist will review the effectiveness of the treatment as a whole and determine if more sessions or additional treatments are needed. This is an important phase because it allows the EMDR therapist to see if there is any residual trauma, such as an induced somatic response, such as high blood pressure, muscle stiffness, or elevated pulse. .
